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Playing as a Monster (5e Optional Rule)
Playing as a Monster or Animal Perhaps you've grown tired of the standard humanoid characters, playing normally in a society, even if differing races may have some added bonuses. Perhaps you desire to try and play something a bit more... Strange. These optional rules can allow you to play as a monster or animal character instead of a humanoid. It is unadvised to use these rules to play as a humanoid monster, because of that could simply be made into a player race and not carry the downsides of playing a monster. Restrictions You cannot play as a Gargantuan-sized creature. If you play as a Huge-sized creature, their size is shrunk to Large. A DM may choose to not allow certain creatures for player usage. Playing as a Creature When playing as a creature, you still roll ability scores like a regular player character, at character creation. Instead of a racial score increase, you either add +2 of the creature's highest stat and +1 of the second highest, or +1 of its three highest stats, depending on how close the stats are. There may also be score decreases, depending on the specific creature. After stats, you take a specific Monster Class, which gives you the features of the creature. A creature with 1 hit die (e.g. an Owl) has only one level in it's Monster Class, while one with more (e.g. a Beholder with 19 hit die) has more. The DM decides which features of a creature you get as you level up (unless it has 1 hit die, in which case you either get most or all features at 1st level), and you still receive Ability Score Increases at levels 4, 8, 12, 16, and 19. However, you can choose to, instead of an increase or feat, take a level of a regular player class, provided it would make sense. (e.g. most spellcasting classes are allowed for all creatures, but some classes, such as a Barbarian, might not work.) After you've reached the maximum level of a Monster Class, you can also pursue a regular class afterwards. Note: '''Your DM might decide to not give you each and every feature of your chosen creature, if it might be too overpowered. Tell your DM beforehand about which creature you plan on playing, so they can try to balance the Monster Class for the campaign. '''Multiattack The Multiattack feature that some creatures have is instead replaced with either Extra Attack, like a player class, or, in the case of a creature that might get certain attacks to use multiple times but not all (e.g. a dragon can claw more than bite) it might have restrictions. Armor and Weapons Armor and Weaponry has to be specially crafted for your creature, which typically ends up costing more. Playing Tiny Creatures This following variant rule works for most tiny creatures. Your DM might decide to make a Tiny creature be Small instead, if they so desire or at your request. Playing as a Familiar or Animal Companion There is no restrictions to playing as a Familiar or Animal Companion. A DM might decide to add some if it proves to be too overpowered, such as Animal Companions not receiving player classes, but there is not generally any specific restrictions. Category:Miscellaneous